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68b62c5
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An uninstructed person will lay the fault of his own bad condition upon others. Someone just starting instruction will lay the fault on himself. Some who is perfectly instructed will place blame neither on others nor on himself.
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Epictetus |
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cf7baa6
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We are at the mercy of whoever wields authority over the things we either desire or detest. If you would be free, then, do not wish to have, or avoid, things that other people control, because then you must serve as their slave.
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Epictetus |
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4e19df8
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If you ever happen to turn your attention to externals, for the pleasure of any one, be assured that you have ruined your scheme of life. Be contented, then, in everything, with being a philosopher; and if you with to seem so likewise to any one, appear so to yourself, and it will suffice you.
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Epictetus Epictetus |
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70fd2d2
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What are we to do, then? To make the best of what lies within our power, and deal with everything else as it comes. 'How does it come, then?' As God wills.
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Epictetus |
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8061ba5
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It is a universal law -- have no illusion -- that every creature alive is attached to nothing so much as to its own self-interest.
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Epictetus |
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c6673e6
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Take care not to hurt the ruling faculty of your mind. If you were to guard against this in every action, you should enter upon those actions more safely.
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Epictetus |
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efb4bf3
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Keep the prospect of death, exile and all such apparent tragedies before you every day - especially death - and you will never have an abject thought, or desire anything to excess.
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Epictetus |
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b4e17d3
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As for us, we behave like a herd of deer. When they flee from the huntsman's feathers in affright, which way do they turn? What haven of safety do they make for? Why, they rush upon the nets! And thus they perish by confounding what they should fear with that wherein no danger lies. . . . Not death or pain is to be feared, but the fear of death or pain. Well said the poet therefore:-- Death has no terror; only a Death of shame!
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Epictetus |
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aaedeeb
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Freedom is not archived by satisfying desire, but by eliminating it.
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Epictetus |
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fb6ce6a
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Remember from now on whenever something tends to make you unhappy, draw on this principle: 'This is no misfortune; but bearing with it bravely is a blessing.
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Epictetus |
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01440e2
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Whenever anyone criticizes or wrongs you, remember that they are only doing or saying what they think is right. They cannot be guided by your views, only their own; so if their views are wrong, they are the ones who suffer insofar as they are misguided.
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Epictetus |
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c34eafd
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Nothing great comes into being all at once, for that is not the case even with a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me now, 'I want a fig,' I'll reply, 'That takes time.
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Epictetus |
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6d3e30e
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Fortify yourself with contentment for this is an impregnable fortress.
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Epictetus |
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3ea3c12
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What saith Antisthenes? Hast thou never heard?-- It is a kingly thing, O Cyrus, to do well and to be evil spoken of.
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Epictetus |
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a78afe7
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He who exercises wisdom, exercises the knowledge which is about God.
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widsom
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Epictetus |
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a3f26ba
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Circumstances do not rise to meet our expectations. Events happen as they do. People behave as they are. Embrace what you actually get.
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Epictetus |
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e88ec4a
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When a man is proud because he can understand and explain the
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Epictetus |
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2d7a196
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Asked how a man should best grieve his enemy, Epictetus replied, "By setting himself to live the noblest life himself."
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Epictetus |
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96f885e
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When you do anything from a clear judgment that it ought to be done, never shun the being seen to do it, even though the world should make a wrong supposition about it; for, if you don't act right, shun the action itself; but, if you do, why are you afraid of those who censure you wrongly?
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Epictetus |
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a11ddea
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There is a time and place for diversion and amusements, but you should never allow them to override your true purposes.
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Epictetus |
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f8b6f08
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Above all, remember that the door stands open. Be not more fearful than children; but as they, when they weary of the game, cry, "I will play no more," even so, when thou art in the like case, cry, "I will play no more" and depart. But if thou stayest, make no lamentation."
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Epictetus |
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dedcc99
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If they are wise, do not quarrel with them; if they are fools, ignore them.
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Epictetus |
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ae1a630
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Here are thieves and robbers and tribunals: and they that are called tyrants, who deem that they have after a fashion power over us, because of the miserable body and what appertains to it. Let us show them that they have power over none.
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golden-sayings
tyrants
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Epictetus |
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e9c8962
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Who then is invincible? The one who cannot be upset by anything outside their reasoned choice.
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life
stoic
invincible
stubborn
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Epictetus |
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4638734
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Men are disturbed not by the things which happen, but by the opinions about the things:
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Epictetus |
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4b8fcf2
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People with a strong physical constitution can tolerate extremes of hot and cold; people of strong mental health can handle anger, grief, joy and the other emotions.
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Epictetus |
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4384ba7
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It is possible to learn the will of nature from the things in which we do not differ from each other. For example, when someone else's little slave boy breaks his cup we are ready to say, "It's one of those things that just happen." Certainly, then, when your own cup is broken you should be just the way you were when the other person's was broken. Transfer the same idea to larger matters. Someone else's child is dead, or his wife. There is ..
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Epictetus |
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f2bc2e5
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It has been ordained that there be summer and winter, abundance and dearth, virtue and vice, and all such opposites for the harmony of the whole, and (Zeus) has given each of us a body, property, and companions.
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Epictetus |
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7e6540d
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You journey to Olympia to see the work of Phidias; and each of you holds it a misfortune not to have beheld these things before you die. Whereas when there is no need even to take a journey, but you are on the spot, with the works before you, have you no care to contemplate and study these? Will you not then perceive either who you are or unto what end you were born: or for what purpose the power of contemplation has been bestowed on you?..
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Epictetus |
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88acd5d
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Who, then, is the invincible human being? One who can be disconcerted by nothing that lies outside the sphere of choice.
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Epictetus |
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6d2c188
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Many people who have progressively lowered their personal standards in an attempt to win social acceptance and life's comforts bitterly resent those of philosophical bent who refuse to compromise their spiritual ideals and who seek to better themselves.
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Epictetus |
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e8cbe1e
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If a man has reported to you, that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make any defense to what has been told you: but reply, The man did not know the rest of my faults, for he would not have mentioned these only.
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Epictetus |
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30c606a
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Never praise or blame people on common grounds; look to their judgements exclusively. Because that is the determining factor, which makes everyone's actions either good or bad.
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Epictetus |
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e5a865c
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That Socrates should ever have been so treated by the Athenians!" Slave! why say "Socrates"? Speak of the thing as it is: That ever then the poor body of Socrates should have been dragged away and haled by main force to prision! That ever hemlock should have been given to the body of Socrates; that that should have breathed its life away!--Do you marvel at this? Do you hold this unjust? Is it for this that you accuse God? Had Socrates no c..
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Epictetus |
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7629f13
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Friend, lay hold with a desperate grasp, ere it is too late, on Freedom, on Tranquility, on Greatness of soul!
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Epictetus |
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c4af715
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You ought to realize, you take up very little space in the world as a whole--your body, that is; in reason, however, you yield to no one, not even to the gods, because reason is not measured in size but sense. So why not care for that side of you, where you and the gods are equals?
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Epictetus |
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5d71a8b
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The gods do not exists, and even if they exist they do not trouble themselves about people, and we have nothing in common with them. The piety and devotion to the gods that the majority of people invoke is a lie devised by swindlers and con men and, if you can believe it, by legislators, to keep criminals in line by putting the fear of God into them.
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Epictetus |
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7913f9d
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Be free from grief not through insensibility like the irrational animals, nor through want of thought like the foolish, but like a man of virtue by having reason as the consolation of grief.
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Epictetus |
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cf18bba
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Demand not that events should happen as you wish; but wish them to happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.
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Epictetus |
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421c39d
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To admonish is better than to reproach for admonition is mild and friendly, but reproach is harsh and insulting; and admonition corrects those who are doing wrong, but reproach only convicts them.
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correction
reproach
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Epictetus |
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6a209f8
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What is death? A "tragic mask." Turn it and examine it. See, it does not bite. The poor body must be separated from the spirit either now or later, as it was separated from it before. Why, then, are you troubled, if it be separated now? for if it is not separated now, it will be separated afterward. Why? That the period of the universe may be completed, for it has need of the present, and of the future, and of the past. What is pain? A mask..
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Epictetus |
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eec4712
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For if we had any sense, what else should we do, both in public and in private, than sing hymns and praise the deity, and recount all the favours that he has conferred!
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Epictetus |
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4979c07
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Let silence be your general rule; or say only what is necessary and in few words.
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Epictetus |
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16305b7
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Don't seek that all that comes about should come about as you wish, but wish that everything that comes about should come about just as it does, and then you'll have a calm and happy life.
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Epictetus |